Lewenhaupt came to Birzen on 17/27 August of 1704. Neresius refused to surrender, and Swedes had to open siege works. Lewenhaupt had only field cannons. Frolich (governor in Riga) & Knorring (commandant in Mitau) refused to send him siege pieces. Swedish bombardment had little effort, two their howitzers & one mortar blow up of frequent fire. The siege works proceeded very slow. Finally on 11/21 of September Swedish approaches reached the moat of the castle. Lithuanian deserters told Lewenhaupt that the garrison feared of Swedish assault. So he asked Sapieha to write to Neresius & suggest him to surrender. Lithuanian commandant easily agreed. The Act of capitulation on the terms of free passage to Dunaburg was signed on 14/24 of September. The next day Swedes entered the castle. The most of Lithuanian garrison entered Sapieha's service. Only 25 men with Neresius marched to Dunaburg. Swedish losses during the siege were only 3 killed & 4 wounded.
Swedes left in Birzen a garrison of 500 men under Major Ertzen. In the beginning of October they got news about new Russian advance (10,000 men strong Corps under Gen. Repnin) & decided to evacuate the castle. It was done on 9/19 of October. The same day Swedes blow up the castle. All cannons & supplies were taken to Mitau & Riga. When Russian Dragoons & Wisniowecki's Lithuanians came to Birzen on 22 Oct / 1 Nov., they caught only 3 Swedes with 2 last cannons.

I would like to thank Bengt Nilsson & Mikola Volkau for their assistance.

P.S. I would be pleased for the images of Birzen siege in the higher resolution

Осада и взятие Биржи, 27 августа - 25 сентября 1704.

Swedish siege works at BirzenШведские осадные работы у Биржи
ONLY LOW RESOLUTION IS AVAILABLE

2 комментария:

In his memoirs Lewenhaupt does indeed claim that Frölich and Knorring were jealous of his sucesses and wouldn't send artillery. However, it's difficult to find support in the actual correspondence between them. As far as I can see Frölich did not believe that the garrison would be able to resist very long due to lack of supplies, but once Lewenhaupt asked for artillery he sent it.

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